History is laden with historic data. Data that was once real time. History taught us ,India was divided by Aryan's and Dravidian's. Too bad for the history teacher we already knew about Dravid (Later we came to know Aryan too in Mohabbatein).Only thing we didn't know was there was a huge family of Dravidian's.
Next moment I and my followers began thinking about how one Dravid has done to the team and now a whole team of Dravidian's will do for the team. So in humble respect for the clan we all closed the history book, stood up and did a forward defence (Spoiler- History teacher was still there).So we made a desperate attempt to fall at her feet (like a diving Arjuna Ranatunga to make the crease of a Ponting's throw).Luckily for us our teacher was also a fan of Rahul Dravid (Thank god for His dashing looks).Our case went for referral (not the one you are thinking here :)).
The third umpire our principal was not so considerate enough. We faced the punishment like an Aussie facing Murali on a 5th day pitch. Deep inside our respect for the "The Wall" grew. It made us more gritty, determined and bold. So much that we ventured to play cricket without Helmets on a cement pitch. I was lucky to escape with a black eye and a broken finger nail others were not and so were hospitalised without their mother's permission.
Over the years Rahul Dravid made his presence amongst the female folk too. I remember some of my classmates going crazy for his 6" by 6" poster or for the Dravid Vs Ganguly debate albeit the topic was "who was more handsome" :P .It only made me go onto the field and practice that copy-book on-drive and the straight drive while some tried their obnoxious shots which we call today as "helicopter shot".
In the later part there was one bowler whom world cricket feared, Shoaib Akhtar. He was as wayward as a Nantie Hayward but if he found the line and length he was too hot to handle. Ask any Indian top order batsmen and they will swear on their mother's name. Even a guy named "Amey Khurasia" had bad luck to debut against Shoaib Akhtar. His stay on the crease used to be short but not before he could patent some moves for "Step Up" with his footwork (Now you know why "Step Up 2 and 3 never became as popular as the original).
Now let me come back to the fight. Dravid facing Shoaib...one could almost feel the heart pumping gallons of blood...and then one pause when the bat meets the ball, thud and the ball would lie at Dravid's feet. (Like you see the prehistoric elephant/rhino nose diving at the killer's feet).We could see a muttering shoaib coming now with more vengeance and atrocity but the ball would see the same fate. It was like watching the win of good over evil and the match consequence was of lesser importance, a moral battle was won. Inspired by Dravid's resilience other lesser mortals too joined him. Slowly the demon was turned down into a mere mortal.
If test cricket is what cricket guru's say is real cricket then he has left behind a gallery of achievements. Kolkata test, Adelaide test, Multan, Lords, Barbados, Auckland, Bridgetown, Johannesburg, he has his name in the Hall of Achievers.
Day before yesterday as I watched him "hang his boots" in a press conference I quickly stole a glance to check if my right hand had gone up to salute the "hero".
